Lag’s Christmas break from jail punished with more time and a fine

A man has been sentenced to 12 weeks imprisonment and ordered to pay an £80 victim surcharge for running away from prison for a festive break.

James Boyle, 41, escaped from Springhill Prison in Grendon Underwood between 1 December 2015 and 21 January 2016.

He had been granted release on temporary licence in order to complete volunteer work in Oxford, but after the trip he did not return to the prison.

Boyle was located and arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police on 21 January at an address in Harrow. He was charged and appeared at North West London Magistrates Court the same day, where he pleaded guilty, and was sentenced.